NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - How to Retire Early and Live Abroad: Your Guide to Making FIRE Last (Plus: 2025 Gas Prices Explained)
Episode Date: July 3, 2025Learn how to navigate gas prices this summer, then hear how to make your money work after retiring early and moving abroad. What’s going on with gas prices this summer? How can early retirees turn ...their savings into income abroad? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola discuss gas price trends and smart investment options for early retirees to help you plan a smoother ride — both on the road and in your financial journey. Joined by NerdWallet’s Anna Helhoski and AAA’s Aixa Diaz, they begin with a discussion of 2025 gas prices, with tips and tricks on timing your fill-ups, choosing the right fuel blend, and prepping your car for summer travel. Then, Sean and Elizabeth answer a listener’s question about how to turn $150,000 in savings into ongoing passive income after achieving FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and relocating to Spain. They discuss how to balance accessibility with growth through options like CD ladders, T-bills, REITs, and dividend ETFs. They also explore considerations around managing rental properties from abroad, currency risk, and the importance of working with a CPA to avoid tax pitfalls when investing internationally. Use NerdWallet’s free compound interest calculator to see how your savings and investment account balances can grow with the magic of compound interest: https://www.nerdwallet.com/calculator/compound-interest-calculator Dividend aristocrats are stocks that raise their dividends every year. Here’s an overview of how to invest in them: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/top-dividend-aristocrats-list Dividend stocks can be a great choice for investors looking for passive income and portfolio stability. View NerdWallet’s list of the best high-dividend stocks and learn how to invest in them: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/how-to-invest-dividend-stocks Here’s NerdWallet’s list of the best ways to send money internationally: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/best-ways-to-wire-money-internationally In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: gas prices 2025, summer gas prices, how to save money on gas, why are gas prices rising, AAA fuel cost calculator, road trip cost calculator, gas price trends, crude oil price impact on gas, how to prepare for a road trip, car maintenance for road trips, road trip emergency kit checklist, what affects gas prices, hurricane impact on gas prices, early retirement abroad, how to generate passive income after FIRE, CD ladder strategy, high-yield savings alternatives, best short-term investments, moving to Spain finances, cost of living in Spain vs USA, living off rental income abroad, managing rental property from overseas, REIT vs dividend ETF, opening brokerage account abroad, FATCA rules for expats, real estate income planning, investing while living overseas, treasury bills vs CDs, compound interest calculator, diversifying passive income, financial planning after FIRE, and retiring in your 40s. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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How those ahead stay ahead.
You've done it.
You've achieved FIRE,
Financial Independence Retire Early.
An amazing accomplishment,
but now how do you take all that hard earned money and put it to work for you? We'll answer a listener's question about what follows fire.
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and
we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. Later this episode, we're going to be talking with a listener about what
happens when you've achieved your dream of early retirement. But first, our weekly money news round
up where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money.
Our newest colleague, Anna Hojkowski is back. And Anna, any plans for a road trip this 4th of July
holiday weekend? What you got going on?
and Anna, any plans for a road trip this 4th of July holiday weekend? What you got going on?
No, you couldn't pay me enough to get on the road and deal with traffic this 4th of July.
But AAA says a record 61.6 million people will travel by car during the holiday period
that began June 28th and runs through Sunday, July 6th.
More cars on the road means demand for gas will be higher too.
And as far recording,
the average price for regular gas in the U.S. is about $3.18. And that's about four cents higher
than a month ago and about 32 cents lower than a year ago. Today we have Aixa Diaz with AAA,
here to explain more about the prices of the pump and what drivers can expect moving deeper into the
warm summer months.
Ayeeksa, welcome to Smart Money. Hi, great to be here. So first off,
I'm hoping you can take us through some of the trends in gas prices in recent years and how
current prices are comparing to a year ago. When you look at a chart and you look at what gas
prices have done the past few years, 2021, for example, was a very low gas time
in terms of what we were paying at the pump.
And in fact, we're not quite there yet.
We're not as low as 2021, but 2021 was pretty low.
When you look at 22, 23, 24, 25,
and you look at the whole year,
and obviously 25 is just halfway through,
what you'll see in those previous years, for example,
is gas fluctuates.
Typically it spikes around springtime, summer,
and then comes back down, but there can be other sort of drastic fluctuations previous years, for example, is gas fluctuates. Typically, it spikes around springtime, summer,
and then comes back down. But there can be other sort of drastic fluctuations throughout
the year, depending on geopolitical situations or domestic tropical storms.
What we've seen in 2025, which makes it so different, is that that line is pretty much
straight across. So yes, we've seen a few fluctuations here and there,
but they have not been dramatic spikes.
I mean, at the beginning of 2025,
we were paying for the national average,
let's say around 308, 310, and now we're at 318.
That's not much of a difference considering this is supposed
to be the highest time of the year.
And we know that gas prices tend to shift with the seasons.
Can you explain some of the differences between winter and summer gasoline and
how that switch impacts what we're paying? So think about it as far as the
weather. So spring and summer is when most people want to take road trips, most
people want to travel, and that means that if gas demand goes up, gas prices
go up. In the fall and winter, as the weather is getting a little bit colder,
yes people are still traveling, but in parts of the country, you can't really drive when it's
snowing and when it's icy on the roads. So gas demand goes down in the fall and winter and gas
prices go down with them. Another thing to consider is the actual gasoline you're putting in your car.
Summer blend gasoline, think of it like coffee. So there's summer blend and there's winter blend. The summer blend is more expensive to produce because
it doesn't evaporate as quickly with the higher temperatures of the summer. So because
that's more expensive to produce, that price then ultimately gets passed down to the consumer.
So drivers will be paying more. Winter blend gasoline is cheaper to make, therefore gas
prices come down in the winter time. So those two things combined, demand and what type of blend, determine then are we paying
more or paying less.
On the foreign policy front, are 2025 tariffs affecting oil imports or gas prices?
That has been so fluid and the headlines on tariffs have changed so much that we haven't
really seen an impact on gas prices as of yet.
So the main impact this year has been
the price of crude oil. When we talk about crude oil prices, it's a certain amount of
money per barrel. And obviously the average person doesn't care about this, right? They're
not going to be like, you're not thinking about how much, we don't know how much crude
oil is an average for the barrel, but you know, nerd wallet, we're gas nerds, so we
kind of have to watch this stuff. Right now we're about $65 per barrel of crude oil. Think of $100 being like, okay, wow, if we're at $100
per barrel for crude oil, we're going to be feeling it at the pump. 80 to 90 range, that
would still be pretty high. 65 is, it's all relative, but it's on the lower side. I mean,
last year, I think the average for 2024 was maybe
80. So we're less than we were in 2024. And even after the conflict in the Middle East with Iran
and Israel that flared up a couple of weeks ago, the spike initially that we saw in crude oil prices
right after that was maybe low 70s. So we still didn't get up to the 80s and 90s, where if we do, that's when we really
start to feel it at the pump and we start seeing the changes. But the bottom line is you can't
predict gas prices because they're dependent on so many variables and so many things you cannot
control or predict. Again, like geopolitical events and like the weather. Obviously, you don't know
what the weather is going to do. So what we can do though is sort of put it in perspective as it goes on. And right now we don't anticipate that July 4th
drivers are going to pay not nearly as high as we were paying last year. And we're not probably
going to be as low as 2021, but we're certainly getting close. July 4th week in 2021, we were
paying an average of $3.12. And speaking of some factors that play into gas prices, are there any energy policy
decisions, drilling permitting, pipeline approvals, refinery regulations, fuel taxes, that kind of
thing, that could move gas prices this summer or in the fall? We don't see anything right now that
would affect that. I think for gas prices right now, the main thing is what oil is doing and how much oil there is and supply
and demand. And even though we have seen demand overall not be quite as robust as it used
to be, there are many theories as to why that is. One of it is, did electric vehicles entering
the market affect it? Yeah, to some extent. Also, after the pandemic, a lot more people
work remotely now. And even though a lot of people have gone back to the office, a lot of people still have that flexibility, at least,
to maybe not go to the office as frequently. So people just aren't driving as much as they used
to. And the price of gas has not shown to be deterrent. People aren't going to stay home if
gas prices go up, and they're not going to be motivated to go drive if the gas prices come down.
It's sort of the thing where it's in the background,
it's a talker, people like to have opinions
about gas prices, but at the end of the day,
not a lot of people make decisions travel-wise
when it comes to gas prices,
just because travel is something
that's so emotional for people
and it's something that brings people so much joy
that they're going to find ways to do it. It's just the icing on the cake when gas prices come down. When you take
your road trip, it's just not going to be quite as expensive.
And there are going to be a lot of road trips coming up and summer travel demand is higher
than ever during the July 4th holiday travel season. Is it expected to remain pretty high
throughout the rest of the summer and are people just generally planning more road trips
at this point?
We definitely anticipate that the demand's gonna be there.
Road trips are just convenient.
Even if you have to drive eight to 10 hours
or even longer, there's people who go from, you know,
New England down to Florida.
It's still economical for families,
especially if they have a lot of people in their families
and they don't feel like, okay, I don't wanna pay $500
a ticket for a flight.
Let's just all pile in the car.
And road trips also just give you flexibility.
You can leave when you want.
You can come back when you want.
What are some of the highest and lowest prices right now?
And are some states or regions more vulnerable to price spikes?
That's interesting.
When you do those type of cross-state road trips,
even if you don't go too far, you see the difference.
I mean, last week I was just in North Carolina and I live in DC. So when I could see the difference,
especially when you go through beach towns or you go through smaller towns, you see those
fluctuations that it is interesting to know. California, out West, Pacific Northwest, those
are going to be your most expensive states. And always have been. Down south, like Mississippi,
Alabama, those are your cheapest states. And then the other states sort of fall somewhere
in the middle. Up in New England, some of those states tend to be higher as well in
the DC area because of the fact that it's a major metro. So some of the more rural states
tend to be a little bit less, but it also has to do with state taxes. All of those things play a role as well.
Is there any other piece of advice
that you would tell road trippers as they're heading out?
Pack an emergency kit.
Pack something that's within reach for the driver
or ideally the passenger.
But if you're driving solo,
have something then next to you like extra water,
make sure you have your charger, your phone charger,
extra snacks, things that won't melt in the car. Go through your mind. Okay. If I were stuck in traffic for hours,
there's a bad crash on the interstate and all lanes are shut down. What do you need
to have in the car with you to keep yourself comfortable, to keep children entertained?
If you have pets in the car, what's going to keep them in good condition? Because keep
in mind, if you're driving through places where there's a lot of heat, what would happen?
Let's say if you're a C-broke,
or like if you had to turn off your car.
And again, these are all just emergency things.
You may not need to use them,
but it gives you a little bit of comfort and peace of mind
to have these extra things with you, you know,
in the vehicle if there were to be some sort of backup
and you're stuck in traffic for hours.
Do you have any other savings tips to share with people?
The more you plan ahead, the better.
I mean, obviously the part of the fun of vacation
is exactly that, giving in to whatever fun temptation
when you see at the little convenience store
or at the souvenir shop and all of that.
But sort of planning ahead of, again,
packing up snacks and food in the car
so that you don't fall prey to those temptations, but also be mindful of
when you leave for the road trip. I was on vacation last week and we drove through I-95 and obviously
the DC area is just, I mean, anyone knows if you have to drive through it because you have to go
from one end to the other of the East Coast. It's pretty brutal, but it's always worse in the afternoon.
It's always going to be worse after lunchtime.
So if you are driving and you're gonna do a pretty big trip,
leave as early as you can, get a good night's rest,
first of all.
When you wait until after lunchtime,
that's when traffic really builds.
And it builds because not only are people going on vacation,
but people are just living their lives.
People are going to work.
People are driving around, running errands,
and there's just more congestion.
And then if you were doing one of these massive road trips where let's say you did leave
Boston early, but then now you're heading into DC and you're about to catch DC around
that time, be mindful.
Can you do an overnight trip somewhere along the way and break up the trip?
And if you have multiple drivers, switch off.
I mean, ideally we recommend every two hours, you should have a stretch break, pull over,
rest area, gas
station, restaurant, get a snack, drink some water, use the restroom, and just stretch.
And ideally switch drivers. It makes a huge difference.
All right, Ayesha Diaz, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you.
And thank you, Ana. This is good to know because I do plan to make a road trip to New Orleans
in August.
Mm-hmm. I have a road trip planned for Eastern Oregon in a couple of months too, so I'm pretty excited
for that.
Hopefully gas prices stay where they are.
Up next, we answer a listener's question about how to manage finances when you've saved enough
to retire early.
But before we get into that, a reminder listener to send us your money questions.
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This episode, we're joined by Ellie,
who sent us an email with some questions
about how to invest a sum of money
to create passive income while living abroad.
Ellie, welcome to Smart Money.
Thank you for having me.
All right, Ellie.
So we're gonna start off with a little icebreaker
because we love icebreakers, don't we?
Yay.
Let's do it.
So one of my questions I've been asking all my friends when we go to dinner is, we're
now in June, if you had to describe the first half of a year in one word, what would you
use to describe your year so far?
Madness.
Oh, that's a juicy one.
If you don't mind telling me.
Okay, I need another two or three words after that.
I must elaborate, don't I?
Please, please.
First of all, trying to move abroad with family is no easy task.
There's a lot of planning, documentation, birth certificates, passports, and all of
that.
Added to all of it is kind of the madness outside. I am in Southern California and kind of in the midst of daily news.
And so it's really hectic.
It's really stressful, not ideal.
So my word of choice is madness.
It seems fitting.
I'd like to hear a little more about your family situation
and your timeline for moving, your plan, what inspired it.
We have traveled to Spain quite a few times
and absolutely loved it every time.
And we've been to many places around the world,
but you never necessarily get that feeling
of, oh, we could live here.
And we're a family of four, we have two kids.
And when we go to Spain, everyone feels
that we could live here feeling. And when
my husband and I started thinking about moving abroad, Spain was kind of just the go-to for
everybody. We asked the kids, where would you live? And they're like, Spain, Spain.
So it also makes sense for us, not just because it feels good, but we all speak Spanish.
It's a lot less expensive to live there.
The lifestyle is incredible.
I mean, they just party all the time.
And then the climate is very similar to Southern California.
So there won't be a big change there.
My husband and I always planned to retire early, and then that was just how things unfolded
and everything kind of aligned.
And here we are, we are about two weeks away
from our big move.
Wow, that's so exciting.
How old are your kids?
My kids are 10 and 16.
Okay, so they would be going to school in Spain. Yes, yes. And we were kind of worried how they would react, you know, because
kids change their mind to they're not necessarily excited about leaving their
friends and their environment. They recognize the change is hard, but they were
both really excited. And we also have friends in Spain, so that helps. We kind of
have a community there already. So they were really excited to go. And just said, you know what, we live once, let's go. So you mentioned earlier
that you and your partner were planning to retire early. So when did you start thinking about this?
And also, what kind of strategy did you put in place so that you could retire early? And also,
congratulations. Well, thank you. You know, it does take a lot of sacrifice.
It's not an easy thing.
We didn't inherit any big sums of money.
We didn't inherit any property.
So it wasn't like we were just born into it.
So what we decided to do is just work really hard and really strategically in the early
years of our building our careers so we can be done in our mid 40s
and retire and then just travel the world.
And the way we did it is by building real estate.
My husband's a contractor, so we would buy a property,
he would expand it or separate it into units,
and then we would live in one area, rent out the rest,
and things like that.
Do you have continual income from rental properties?
We do. And this is how we are able to move abroad. So if we were to stay in the United
States, that passive income that we currently receive would not be sufficient to maintain our lifestyle. So we're still working.
My husband's working.
I'm done.
I quit.
But when we get to Spain, because the cost of living is so much cheaper, we would be
able to cover our expenses with just the passive income and without working. You wrote to us about essentially having $150,000
in a high yield savings account.
So can you talk to us a bit about that?
So the way we have this cash is when we sold
one of our properties to pay off some construction debt
that we had, and then the rest of it,
we put in a high yield savings account.
The other thing we did is every time we had a little bit of extra money every month, we
would send it there.
And so it just kind of accumulates and it is now up to 150.
And so what I wanted to do is instead of having it sit in cash, we wanted to somehow invest
it to give us additional passive income.
And I don't necessarily want to buy another property in the United States because we won't
be here to take care of it.
And as you know, the interest rates are so high right now to borrow, so I don't know
that it would be beneficial for us to do so anyway.
And investing it in one way here may be better, but I don't necessarily know how.
I don't want to move the U.S. money to Spain because the dollar is so cheap right now.
It is very expensive for us to move money to Spain. What's the interest rate that you're getting on the high-yield savings account at the moment?
It started with 5%, but it just kept declining. It went to 4.5, and now it's at 4.
So I think your main goal here would be to put your money somewhere where you can maybe
beat that 4% so that your money could be earning more. And honestly, you have tons of options which could potentially give you analysis paralysis.
But a few that you could do are dividend stocks, dividend index funds, you could also do dividend
ETFs and all of these dividend dividends that I just mentioned, pay you dividends on a regular
basis could be quarterly, monthly, just depends.
You could also do REITs, CDs, T-bills, bonds,
and just so many other options.
So are there any that you already have researched
and thought about?
No, I haven't.
I looked at putting the money into the stock market,
and it just seems really risky to me
because that is all of our money,
and I also don't want to, since we're all the way in Spain,
and if somebody doesn't pay their rent
or we run into trouble here with one of our rentals,
then we have to have cash available to us
to cover expenses each month while that lasts.
Let's talk about timeline a little bit,
because that can direct what kinds of investments
might be most appropriate for you.
How long are you planning to stay in Spain?
That's a loaded question.
We originally thought about two years.
We then expanded to probably four and right now we just don't know.
It's open ended.
I haven't heard of anyone moving to Spain and saying,
you know what, I can't wait to go back to the States.
I can't wait to have all these healthcare expenses in the United States again.
Exactly. Just one of the things.
I just, I really don't know, but we're leaving it open-ended.
And when do you think you'll need the money?
It seems like you'll want it pretty continuously immediately. Is that right?
Correct. Yes. So the way that our budget is going to work, we have, and again, it's because
the dollar is so inexpensive right now, the money that we're getting from the United States
to support us in Spain will be less than what we had originally budgeted. And as a result, it's not going to cover,
for example, our fun travels,
and it's gonna cover our expenses every month,
but it won't be for a lot of fun
and kind of additional activities.
The savings, what I'm hoping it'll do,
is going to give us some of that fun money,
our travel money.
For short-term investments, things like T-bills,
treasury bills, and certificates of deposit
can be a handy way to have continual money,
although often you'll have to wait maybe a year
to be able to see the money return to you.
So in the absolute immediate term, less than a year, that high savings account
might be the easiest way for you to get some money coming out. Depleting your savings might
make you a little bit nervous, but that's just going to be one of the easiest ways to
get funds to fund your day to day life and travel that you might want. There is a strategy
called a CD ladder, where are you familiar with certificates of deposit and how they work a
Little bit. I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any means. Sure. I'll give you a really brief rundown
It's an account where you can put a sum of money in and you get a set return
If you keep the money in that account for the specific term, some may have a term of a year
So with a CD ladder, you would have a bunch of CDs, kind of like rungs on the ladder.
So after the first year, you're getting some money from it, but then you have another CD that was maybe a two year CD.
So then after that, you're getting the money the next year and so on for as many years as you want to establish this ladder for.
That can be a helpful way to ensure that you're getting continual amounts of money.
And generally, the longer the term on your certificate of deposit, the better rate you're getting. So that might be a system that you could set up. You could also invest in something
like a real estate investment trust or REIT which Elizabeth mentioned earlier. They are pretty great
ways to get money back from investing via dividends. But one thing to keep in mind is that it's
really important
if you are going to be investing while living abroad
to establish the accounts like a brokerage account
before you go, because there have been some laws
changed recently, especially related to the
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA,
which has made it more challenging for people
to set up brokerage accounts while
living abroad.
So I also would encourage, strongly, strongly encourage you and your husband to meet with
a CPA who has experience helping clients living abroad because you don't want to find yourself
suddenly in a difficult tax situation where you aren't able to open a brokerage account
that you need to open, or you find yourself
owing more taxes than you expected
because you didn't know that something existed
like the VATCA.
So that's something that would be smart to do
in the next couple of weeks.
Thank you, yes.
So I know you have this lump sum, $150,000.
Do you have an emergency savings anywhere,
or is that just all of the liquid cash
that you have sitting around?
This is it. That's why I was thinking maybe we pull 50 of it and have it stay in the savings
account so we can access it as soon as we need it. And then the other 100 maybe go into one of
those other options that you guys were saying. Yeah. And honestly, I want to point out, especially since you said one of those options, you have
a nice sum of money to work with.
You don't have to choose one.
So you can diversify and put your money in the different places.
And also, I want to encourage you to play with a compound interest calculator, which
we have on nerdwallet.com, because it'll help you see essentially different scenarios.
So if I put X
amount in a CD or inside a treasury bill or wherever else, how much potential returns could I get?
So that might help influence or help you make a more informed decision about where to put your
money as well. That's a great idea. Thank you. I'll use that tool. Ellie, you also mentioned to us
before the recording that you have an investment property, I believe in Utah, is that correct? And you're considering maybe selling it. Talk with us about this
property and why you're thinking of selling it.
So we bought this property not too long ago, interest rates were already pretty high. It
was a single family home that we turned into three separate units. We got all the proper
signatures through the city and it's all legit. And then
we were able to rent out each unit. However, because it's so expensive to pay mortgage
and the utilities, what we make from that property is about $700 a month on average,
which can easily go away with just one plumbing challenge or a roof
leak and then that's a few thousand dollars to fix.
And if we were to hire a management company, we would pay them about that much as well
to take care of the home.
So I'm not sure what to do with it, whether to wait and see if interest rates go down and refinance,
because once I refinance, it'll be a significant difference if interest rates go down to, you know,
four or even 5%. But if I sell it, then we would have more liquid cash. And I don't necessarily know how would I would
invest it. Ideally, we originally thought to move this money to Spain and buy property
there maybe by a duplex where we live in one and we rent out the other or have it for our
guests. But again, because of the value of the dollar, this becomes a very expensive strategy. And I don't know that
that's ideal.
Well, one good thing is that you already have this asset, and you
have some amount of equity in it. And it's bringing you money on
a regular basis, even if it's not a lot. So the part of me
that also just became a landlord and is renting out a house I was
considering selling things that it's not a bad idea to hold on to this source of money,
even if it's not a tremendous amount.
And for me, my property manager charges 10% of my rent.
So say you are paying $70 to keep this money coming, you're netting $630 a month.
That's not bad, even though, yes, you're being hit
by the conversion rate and living abroad in Spain,
you're going to have continual currency risk
as the value of the dollar changes.
But I think for a sense of security and consistency,
it might be wise to wait at least six months to a year
to see how well you really like
living in Spain, what you might want to do with this money and this equity before making
any decisions in the short term.
No, that sounds good. And I also listened to you had a guest on a previous podcast not
too long ago who said don't ever sell.
Yes, our fellow nerd Lisa Green, these words ring in my ears almost daily.
She said, after selling properties, whenever she's done it, she's very shortly thereafter
regretted selling those properties.
And I've heard this from other people who've done a lot of real estate investing too.
You've already gone through the hassle of acquiring the property.
You might as well hold onto it, again, at least for a little while.
And of course, I'm not telling you what to do with your money here, but I think it's
important to be really measured in how you're making big decisions like this.
And understanding once you're living in Spain, what your monthly and daily cash flow is really
like, you might be able to get by on less than you expect. And if money does feel too tight,
you could begin to branch out. And maybe your husband could look into some contractor work
out there. Or you could look into building a house there.
Are you going to be doing any work there, you or your husband?
I think so.
I just don't want to have to go to work.
But we're still very young.
We're in our early 40s.
And so we will probably do something.
I'm sure he's going to build something.
He loves building.
It's like playing with Legos for adults.
And then I have a master's degree in English.
And so when I was shopping around for schools,
there was so much interest in me joining a school somewhere to teach English.
So that's always an option.
And Ellie, just for listeners, I want to point out that it sounds like your husband is doing
a little bit of barista fire. But barista fire is essentially when you have saved enough where you
can work part time and do exactly what your husband is doing, what he loves doing, building things.
But you don't have to worry too much about money in that sense. So do you guys have a long term
plan in terms of how long your savings are going
to last for? How far ahead have you thought in terms of how much you saved?
We've thought lifelong because this cash was supposed to be another property investment. So
we have more than the house in Utah. We met in our early 20s and we were very strategic about how we want to go about this.
And the sacrifices included not traveling like our friends did and not going to Palm Springs every
weekend to have fun with the water slides and things like that with the kids. All the extra
money went into buying properties and then
building properties.
Since most of your income came from real estate, how much went into investment accounts, if
at all?
None.
We didn't put it into the stock market or any other investment.
We don't generally suggest that people invest in the stock market with money they'll need
for sooner than five years because of the ups and downs of the stock market.
So that is why we have been turning you toward something like T-bills or CDs to
look into just so that you can have that liquidity but again since you don't have
anything in the stock market besides your retirement account that would be
something I would just really strongly encourage you to look into. Well I know
we've run through
a lot and there's still a lot of open questions and you are
moving in two weeks. So I assume your life is in boxes right
now. How are you feeling at the moment? And what do you think
your next steps might be?
I'm really excited. But we are in boxes. We are pretty much all
packed. We are renting out our home too. My next steps are really to go over the list of ideas
that you guys shared and see what would work best.
And I think to Elizabeth's point,
I may have to split things because I do want to have access
to some of the money immediately as I need it.
And then I don't really think we're going to need all of it.
So I can take maybe bigger risks.
Well, great job on retiring early.
Again, congratulations.
And please, please, please keep us posted.
We want to know how Spain goes, how your kids love it.
We want all the juicy details.
So please write us, text us, and share.
Awesome.
I would love to and will do.
Thank you for your help.
Thank you.
And that's all we have for this episode.
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This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply
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This episode was produced by Tess Bigland and Anna Helhasky, Hilary Georgie, Helped
with Editing, Nick Parissimi, Mixer Audio,
and a big thank you to Nerd Wallets editors
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And until next time, turn to the nerds.
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